Requiem

Pam Robinson followed Jim Snyder, the lead NRT agent on scene, into the ruins. The lobby reminded her of other bombing scenes. The wall that had held mail slots for outgoing cards, letters, and packages now littered the floor in thousands of pieces. Fragments of stationery draped the rubble like confetti. Remnants of acoustic ceiling tile panels lay all over the blast area. The bomb’s intensity had jarred the building’s second floor but not penetrated it, nor had the passport and accounting offices been breached.
The human toll had not been that great—great being a relative term. Twelve men and women would not share Christmas with loved ones. The bodies of twelve men and women, half of them postal employees, would lie in caskets lined with lilies rather than Christmas roses. Twelve bomb victims would never know why they had been targeted for death.